3,000 More American Troops Reportedly on Their Way to the Middle East
Roughly 3,000 U.S. troops are heading to the Middle East, Pentagon officials reportedly indicated on Friday.
The deployment of about 3,000 soldiers from a brigade of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, based in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, follows the dispatch of about 650 troops from the 82nd Airborne earlier in the week, according to NBC News, which cited anonymous U.S. officials.
The news came after the U.S. announced it had killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force, in a drone strike while Soleimani was visiting Baghdad, the capital of Iraq. Officials did tell NBC the deployment was not a result of the strike on Soleimani.
A force of 4,000 paratroopers, known as the DRB — the Division Ready Brigade — had been told Tuesday to prepare for a deployment, according to Fox News. That was the same day that an Iran-supported mob stormed the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
The U.S. currently has about 5,000 troops in Iraq and 60,000 in the Middle East region. The aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and its strike group are currently in the Gulf of Oman.
U.S. Central Command has increased the force protection level for American forces in the region, CNN reported.
It is now at Force Protection level “Charlie,” which applies “when a terrorist or hostile act incident occurs within the commander’s area of interest or intelligence is received indicating a hostile act, some form of terrorist action or targeting DoD elements, personnel, or facilities.”
On Friday, National Security Advisor Robert C. O’Brien said the strike on Soleimani was meant to avert an attack against Americans, according to The Washington Post.
“He was planning attacks on American soldiers, airmen, Marines, sailors and against our diplomats,” O’Brien told reporters. “This strike was aimed at disrupting ongoing attacks that were being planned by Soleimani and deterring future Iranian attacks through their proxies or through the IRGC Quds Force directly against Americans.”
“The president made a decision that … while there is always a risk in taking decisive action, there’s a greater risk in not taking that action,” O’Brien said. “The president was just not prepared to risk the lives of American servicemen and women and our diplomats, given Soleimani’s history and his efforts to further destabilize the region and the imminent nature of the attacks he was planning on Americans in Iraq and other locations.”
Trump also spoke about the attack on Friday during a Miami rally.
“We are a peace-loving nation, and my administration remains firmly committed to establishing peace and harmony among the nations in the world,” Trump said. “We do not seek war, we do not seek nation-building, we do not seek regime change, but as president, I will never hesitate to defend the safety of the American people like you.”
“Let this be a warning to terrorists: If you value your own life, you will not threaten the lives of our citizens,” Trump said.
But Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont spoke out against the attack on Soleimani while campaigning in Iowa.
“This is a dangerous escalation that brings us closer to another disastrous war in the Middle East, which could cost countless lives and trillions more dollars and lead to even more death, more conflict, more displacement in that already highly volatile region of the world,” Sanders said.
Sanders said he opposed the Iraq War for fear that it would destabilize the region, and voiced the same fear over the drone strike that killed the Iranian general.
“It gives me no pleasure to tell you at this moment we face a similar crossroads fraught with danger,” Sanders said.
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